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Preservation Awards Candidates to be Finalized Tuesday at Commission Meeting

From STAFF REPORTS

Published : Monday, April 16, 2018 | 5:29 PM

Pasadena’s Historic Preservation Commission is set to finalize a list of nine recipients for this year’s Preservation Awards during its Tuesday meeting.

The awards will be given in May during Preservation Month, an effort spearheaded by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which began in 1971 as Preservation Week and was expanded into a month-long celebration in 2005.

Pasadena has been celebrating Historic Preservation Month since 2004 and giving out awards annually since. This year’s awards will be handed out Thursday, May 24 at the Fowler Garden at the former Ambassador West Campus.

Here are the proposed recipients:

At 181 Oak Knoll, the recrafting of the intricate wood louvers above the site’s garden areas was nominated in the Reconstruction category, since the condition of the louvers at the beginning of the job were “crudely built replacements” that contained little or no evidence of the original construction. The building, designed by local firm Smith and Williams, was built in 1965 for a group of therapists. Each of the high-ceiling consultation rooms looks through a glass wall into an outdoor garden, which is shaded by the louvers. 181 Oak Knoll has been nominated in the Reconstruction category.

The Tempietto Folly/EDAW Garden Relocation Project involved not only reconstruction but also relocation of the Tempietto Folly and EDAW Garden (named for the Eckbo, Dean, Austin and Williams, Inc. landscape architects which designed the garden) from the grounds of the Ambassador College to the southwest of the Merritt Mansion on the same campus. The project was nominated in the Restoration/Landscapes category.

The home at 294 S. Grand Avenue owned by Mark and Pam Algorri was nominated in the Restoration/Preservation category. A report showed how the couple had been working to restore the home to its original 1904 configuration since buying the property in 1988 by re-shingling and repainting the roof, replacing the quarter-sawn wood flooring, removing all walls and replastering, re-doing all the plumbing, bringing up the kitchen to modern standards but still keeping it period, and all other work that the couple says has been “labor of love for 30 years.” The project has been nominated in the Restoration/Preservation category.

The Rose Bowl Renovation Project followed a Historic Structure Report and Preservation Plan completed in 1997, which guided a six-year rehabilitation that proceeded as the stadium maintained a full schedule of events. The goals of the project were to continue the stadium’s status as a National Historic Landmark while improving public safety, enhancing the fan experience, improving facility operations, and developing long-term revenue streams.

In the early 2000s, the Rose Bowl Operating Company considered bringing an NFL team to the Rose Bowl, with a promised investment of $500 million for a complete remodel of the stadium. Concerns from Pasadena’s citizens about possible significant impacts of the proposal to the National Historic Landmark stadium and the surrounding National Register-listed Arroyo Seco led to the City voting against the remodel. The Rose Bowl Renovation Project has been given the nod in the Rehabilitation category.

The restoration of the mural at McKinley School’s library wall took four months of work that was completed in June last year, thanks to a community effort that raised about $100,000 for the conservation work. The giant, oil-on-canvas, 16-foot-by-40-foot mural was painted by artist Frank Tolles Chamberlin in 1942 and has been in the library for 75 years. It was part of the government-funded New Deal program designed to improve the living conditions of those suffering from the effects of the Great Depression. The mural has been nominated for a Restoration award.

The Hindry House Site Rehabilitation Project, at 781 Prospect Blvd., is nominated for a Restoration/Landscapes award and involves revamping the house built in 1910 and designed by architects Alfred and Arthur Heineman, located on a prominent corner of the Prospect Park Historic District in Pasadena. A Cultural Landscape Report, including a Period of Significance (POS) and Character Defining Features (CDF) guided the rehabilitation plan. The house is unique in that it is comprised of two historic designed landscapes—the Hindry era when the house was constructed, and Hibbs era, when landscape artist Courtland Paul was commissioned to design a swimming pool, cabana, and associated landscaping.

The John K. Van de Kamp (formerly La Loma) Bridge Seismic Retrofit project, also nominated for a Restoration award, was pursued by the City of Pasadena and Caltrans, with a community-based design advisory group. The retrofit was completed to meet current seismic codes while minimally impacting other environmentally sensitive resources, using local and federal funds. As its design was approaching completion, USGS seismic testing in the area identified a previously unmapped path of a portion of the Eagle Rock fault line passing directly beneath the center pier of the existing structure. As a result, a new design outwardly maintaining the original appearance of the structure and hiding the new structural components necessary to handle any anticipated displacement should a large quake occur was devised and became the basis for the rehabilitation.

250 Alpine Street involved rehabilitation of an existing single-family residence and construction of two new residential units. While not eligible for historic designation, the house on the project was eligible for waivers of development standards to encourage its preservation, and the owner took advantage of this opportunity, despite the house’s remarkably deteriorated condition. 205 Alpine has been nominated for a Rehabilitation award.

At 414 Mooresque Drive, the owners hired architect Dennis Smith to construct a 650-square-foot addition to the existing 1,612-square-foot single-family residence within the RS-2-HD zoning district, resulting in a 2,262-square-foot total living area. The entire roof, all glass, and all exterior wood were replaced with stucco and heavy timber construction. Work took two years of a painstaking, down-to-the-studs renovation to preserve this stellar example of a mid-century modern home enjoying a new life as an expanded post-and-beam home in a neighborhood of architecturally significant homes high atop Mooresque Drive. It has been nominated for a Restoration/Preservation award.

The Historic Preservation Commission meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Hearing Room at the George Ellery Hale Building at 175 North Garfield Avenue.